The sprite practice thread.

[Rhynn Collins]

Much better! Definitely starting to look metallic!

Though the bottom light is usually more a line along the edge instead of a spot, I should have explained that better.

 

Actually, look at the Tinsel egg:

 

Your highlight also seems slightly elongated rather than circular like I'd expect. It's totally fine if you're not trying to make a perfect ball.

From what I've seen of your work you probably do know this already, but always keep in mind: shading can completely change what shape something has

[Psycho Cat]

Kay, so, this one's a lot better. Did add some dithering, but not on the level of of the original. I just wanted to get rid of the blended, anti-aliasing look.

[Rhynn Collins]

Oh that looks absolutely fantastic! Totally love it The slight dithering works really well, it makes it fit better with the bigger stone thing than if it were completely smooth.

 

I take it the bigger stone is a somewhat rough textured stone? If so it's great the way it is If it's not supposed to be textured you could try smoothing out a bit of the dithering. But I really lie the look of the overall image

[Psycho Cat]

Yeah, the bigger stone is meant to have a stoney texture, like the original.

 

Anyways, whoo! Think I can call it done. Thank gerd I came here because now I know eight-bazillion times more stuff about orbs.

[Leashedragon]

Sooo I tried my first attempt at doing lines on something. I used this picture(I did NOT draw it.. just googled it for play sake) and shrunk it down.

 

Here it is shrunk.

 

These are the lines I did from it...

 

I probably should have used more than one color but I was simply just seeing if it was even worth me trying. I'm noticing the chest now, though.. which could have used some softening. I did miss some of the detail like the horns, and some of the back ridges, but I stopped for now as my eyes were getting tired.

 

Opinions? Should I give up now or do I actually have something? I'd like to try spriting some of my own ideas and posting them in hopes they'd end up in the caves, but I'd rather know if I am even good before I go and put the time into it, lol. Of course this is just the lines, I could absolutely suck at the coloring part... I haven't made it that far yet!

 

 

[TwelveofTwelves]

Keep trying! Overall I think it's a good start, though don't take it from me, I'm still learning myself. I finally finished my first sprite...but it's a penguin...and far from the best. But I think if you keep working it'll come together!

[TwelveofTwelves]

Speaking of my penguin, how's it coming out? I think the shading may be off...

 

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p10/Twe...zps1e9594e3.png

[Pixxelation]

Sooo I tried my first attempt at doing lines on something. I used this picture(I did NOT draw it.. just googled it for play sake) and shrunk it down.

 

Here it is shrunk.

 

These are the lines I did from it...

 

I probably should have used more than one color but I was simply just seeing if it was even worth me trying. I'm noticing the chest now, though.. which could have used some softening. I did miss some of the detail like the horns, and some of the back ridges, but I stopped for now as my eyes were getting tired.

 

Opinions? Should I give up now or do I actually have something? I'd like to try spriting some of my own ideas and posting them in hopes they'd end up in the caves, but I'd rather know if I am even good before I go and put the time into it, lol. Of course this is just the lines, I could absolutely suck at the coloring part... I haven't made it that far yet!

You shouldn't sprite something if you didn't sketch it or do not have permission from the artist of the original art. It is considered art theft, and artists can get very angry about it.

Edited May 11, 2014 by PieMaster

[Rhynn Collins]

You shouldn't sprite something if you didn't sketch it or do not have permission from the artist of the original art. It is considered art theft, and artists can get very angry about it.

Hmm I respectfully disagree. It is art theft if you claim it as your own. Using it to practice is generally not exactly a big deal, as long as credit is given and it is nowhere claimed as your own original work, and of course not used commercially. For practising making a first ever sprite, googling an image is perfectly fine.

 

Learning by studying other peoples' art is a huge part of most artists' development - a lot of pros started out by copy-drawing existing work and learning from it.

 

That said, it is always good to ask for permission first - better safe than sorry.

 

-------------

Now on to crit about the sprite! Leashedragon, it's a good start If you want to learn spriting for DC, I'd recommend keeping the size of the sprite around 100 by 100 pixels (the standard DC size). Right now your sprite is quite a bit smaller. By making it bigger you can see the original better and thus more easily line it.

I also recommend using an image that isn't coloured; lineart is a lot easier to convert into a spriteline than a painting! Perhaps you could use one of the images in the first post of this topic?

 

The lines themselves are very wonky in places. It's especially visible on the wing; there seems to be a bump in it.

[5icky]

This was a freehand lining job, can anyone crit anatomy before i attempt a terrible job at adding wing membrane?

I'd like some in depth crits if at all possible, i need to get this little guy done quickly

[Leashedragon]

Hmm I respectfully disagree. It is art theft if you claim it as your own. Using it to practice is generally not exactly a big deal, as long as credit is given and it is nowhere claimed as your own original work, and of course not used commercially. For practising making a first ever sprite, googling an image is perfectly fine.

 

Learning by studying other peoples' art is a huge part of most artists' development - a lot of pros started out by copy-drawing existing work and learning from it.

 

That said, it is always good to ask for permission first - better safe than sorry.

 

-------------

Now on to crit about the sprite! Leashedragon, it's a good start If you want to learn spriting for DC, I'd recommend keeping the size of the sprite around 100 by 100 pixels (the standard DC size). Right now your sprite is quite a bit smaller. By making it bigger you can see the original better and thus more easily line it.

I also recommend using an image that isn't coloured; lineart is a lot easier to convert into a spriteline than a painting! Perhaps you could use one of the images in the first post of this topic?

 

The lines themselves are very wonky in places. It's especially visible on the wing; there seems to be a bump in it.

Using a colored one did prove a bit.. of a challenge. I made the image 100x100 not thinking that the dragon itself would be smaller than that, lol. I was going back and fixing the lines without the image underneath to distract me, but stopped after staring at it for so long made my eyes hurt, thus probably a lot of the wonkyness you still see.

 

Will definitely keep trying. I only googled an image because I didn't want to draw something up and end up spending a few hours on that THEN try to sprite it. I just wanted to see if I could even do it. So I might just draw something next and try it.

[5icky]

Leashedragon, I always crop a photo down before using it for sprite lines, for example if i take a sketch that's 1408 x 1399, I'll crop the image so that it's just the dragon(none of the borders of paper or whatever) and then set the larger one to 100. It will size down as needed nearly perfectly for lining.

 

Any crits for me guys?

[Tiga]

BWAHAHA! My spriting attempts fail.

 

 

Please help! I know the anatomy is way off... I dont do spriting.

[Whitefire]

BWAHAHA! My spriting attempts fail.

 

 

Please help! I know the anatomy is way off... I dont do spriting.

Spriting is like drawing but with pixels

 

http://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?showt...0entry5036707

 

http://whitefire321.deviantart.com/art/Bir...orial-150844565

http://jazisnake.deviantart.com/art/TUTORI...2F52886350&qo=3

http://whitefire321.deviantart.com/art/Dra...-v-02-142772030

 

These should help, at least somewhat o3o b

Edited May 13, 2014 by Whitefire

[Tiga]

Spriting is like drawing but with pixels

 

http://forums.dragcave.net/index.php?showt...0entry5036707

 

http://whitefire321.deviantart.com/art/Bir...orial-150844565

http://jazisnake.deviantart.com/art/TUTORI...2F52886350&qo=3

http://whitefire321.deviantart.com/art/Dra...-v-02-142772030

 

These should help, at least somewhat o3o b

Right, thanks!

[LeviathinGeneral]

This is my first attempt. Would like feedback!

[Sany]

I started trying out spriting eggs, since they're pretty easy.

I first tried shading it myself:

 

Then I tried the dithering by just coloring over the example silver egg to see/feel how dithering works:

 

I definitely think dithering looks better, so I'm going to practice more at that.

 

Also going to try spriting a dragon now using one of kila's sketches.

 

EDIT: here's what the dragon (adult) looks like so far... I can't seem to figure out what to do with the tail. (progress images since kila requested it)

 

I'd definitely appreciate some critique on what I have so far!

Edited May 17, 2014 by Sany

[Ayesthine]

Well

I've put an hour into this, off and on. The pose is a bit strange, but I drew it at sprite size so whatever. Thoughts on this would be much appreciated P:

[Whitefire]

Ok this is somewhat old but

 

->

 

Fixed the red highlight colors and added a highlight for the yellow marking on the back. put some little highlights on the yellow fur to give more detail.

 

Meanwhile there's a whole bunch of stuff that still needs fixing, but after fighting with gimp just to do this i think ill save that for when i can get photoshop on here. and when i do, i'll need to know how to highlight for fire, due to the multiple lightsources on this i have no idea hjfgksjdfhgk

 

And the tail shading is terribad dont look at at.

[raichuluxray]

 

I made this from Rynnfox's first sketch on the first post. Crits?

 

I'm not pleased with the shading. I've done better. :/

[Shay555031]

 

I made this from Rynnfox's first sketch on the first post. Crits?

 

I'm not pleased with the shading. I've done better. :/

Well being new to the multimedia forum and taking a quick overview of work that has been done thus far I hope the criticism helps. I would first like to say that I love the colors! I think the shading is good for starting spriting. But I think initially, there needs to be some criticism on the initial anatomy.

 

For me the dragon's rump has no spring in it, no OOMF. More like it either skipped arm day, or ate too many space chickens. (despite that the dragon is super CUTTE GJ Rynn!) I don't have a means to show you via traditional pencil and paper (where I actually can draw) so here is my meager attempt on paint with my mouse. I apologize now since I am not that skilled with paint, but here is my two pennies.

 

When I look at the dragon I imagine that since it has vestigial wings, it is going to be more of a runner. When you look at any athlete (except body builders) they are very lean. Which is how the dragon starts up front but then he has a good sized bootie. So with the img link below I tried on paint to express what I thought Rynnfox was going for, a lean, muscular buttox with more emphasis on the knee to give the leg a more powerful jump or spring in my opinion. I could do 10x better with a pencil (which I am going to do once I get a camera later today) I wanted to give you feedback while it was fresh in my mind.

 

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l10/Chey...zpsd2d9e158.png

 

As far as your shading Raichu, I like it, the only thing for me though is that it looks like you wanted to put emphasis on the muscles. From the point I mentioned above, I feel like it made his butt look a little larger. heh Shading, it really does add 10 pounds on ya! (trying to be funny :| ) Anyhow, with that in mind I feel like you should have gone with more of a focus on trying to shade them like a sphere. To give the muscles a little more volume, but they remain subtle. I am not so sure I personally like the full on, frontal light source. I feel like it washes out (removes the important features) of a person or dragon in this case. I personally would have added more shadow, going with this light source.

 

I hope this in some way helps I will return with a better img to reference.

[Ayesthine]

I think what you're getting at is that it needs a knee, yes? Or at least a visible thigh and calf.

 

I like your shading, Raichu! It's a lot simpler and cleaner than mine Dx

[Shay555031]

I think what you're getting at is that it needs a knee, yes? Or at least a visible thigh and calf.

Yeah! To better make sense I guess, is that it reminds me of a lioness leg in structure

[GalaxyPassion13]

I tried to sprite something:

(A hummingbird)

 

My first time spriting, just downloaded the software 3 hours ago. I only used 4 shades per color, so I hope it turns out fine... Please critique!

[HawktalonOfRiverClan]

Well I drew a thing. Not from a sketch, I just started drawing. I've been messing with it for a while and I'm pretty happy with it, but I'd like some anatomy crits before I start shading.

 

 

Yes, I know the colors are dreadful. The black and red were only to help me see the lines a bit better against the white background while spriting. The colors will be changed later, along with horns and other details.

 

Does the head look too big to anyone else, or is it just me? Is the back still too flat? Is the far wing alright? Should I move the tail to behind the legs instead of between them?

 

EDIT: I decided to mess with it....

 

Fixed the line colors and drew a new (hopefully smaller) head. Still looking for anatomy crits, mainly to fix the front leg... I have no idea how to make it look less weird.

Edited June 22, 2014 by HawktalonOfRiverClan